Not A Dumb Mutt Anymore!
by Commander
Summary: Odie is captured by a laboratory which specializes in animals testing, and is made very smart. This is my first Garfield fan fic why did I wait so long? I LOVE Garfield so be kind and tell me what you think!


It was a beautiful day in Muncie, Indiana. The lovable dog Odie was taking a walk through the town. He enjoyed smelling all the smells and seeing all the sights. And at sure was a lot better than spending a day with Garfield, who would steal his food and kick him off the kitchen table.  
  
Unfortunately, Odie had no idea just where he was heading. He was heading straight towards a laboratory which was not approved of by the government. Its specialty: Animal testing. Animal testing on cats, dogs, and any other animal they could get their filthy hands on.  
  
Odie haplessly was almost right next to the building. A couple of the workers looked out of the window. "That's it," said one. "That's the dog we want."  
  
"Are you sure?" asked the other.  
  
"Of course. I mean, any dog would have done, they're all stupid, but this one looks supremely stupid. Let's get him."  
  
As Odie walked right by the door, the smell suddenly made him want to leave. The whole building smelled like pain and evil. He knew that he should leave. Now.  
  
Unfortunately, Odie didn't have time to leave. The two sinister men who were watching him suddenly jumped out of the open window and grabbed him by the neck. Odie started to bark for help but the two mean men put a muzzle over his nose and mouth.  
  
"That should shut him up," said one of them.  
  
"Dumb mutt," sneered the other.  
  
They brought him into the laboratory. "Alright," said the first one, "let's get this over with. I want to see if this works or not."  
  
"Absolutely," said the second one. "Put him in the chair."  
  
Odie suddenly found himself getting strapped to a chair that looked something like an electric chair. Now, of course, Odie didn't know what an electric chair was (this wasn't an electric chair, by the way), but he knew he didn't like getting put into this thing. He would have bit them but he had the muzzle on.  
  
The two vile men pushed a button on a machine. A bright light suddenly shone right on Odie and temporarily blinded him. When he could see again he felt… different.   
  
"It looks like this machine was a success," one of the men was saying. "His intelligence levels have gone up considerably. He's no genius, but much smarter than he was before."  
  
~Intelligence?~ thought Odie to himself. ~They made me more intelligent?~  
  
They unstrapped Odie and set him on the ground. Odie looked around and felt some sort of new understanding wash through him. ~Animal testing!~ he thought to himself. ~They're doing tests on animals here! Why, these people ought to be arrested!~  
  
As the two wicked men looked Odie over, an alarm went off. "One of the specimens is escaping," said a computerized voice.  
  
"Come on!" yelled one. They both dashed out of the room, leaving Odie free to run away. Which is precisely what he did.  
  
Once Odie was sure he was far, far away from that awful place, he tried to figure out how to get that muzzle off. Since he was much smarter than what he was before, he quickly figured out how to unfasten it. Dropping it on the ground next to him, he ran straight home, not looking back.  
  
  
Odie sat on the ledge of the kitchen table, thinking. He had never realized that there was so much to think about before. In fact, he hadn't really known too much back then, either. The only thing that he could think of was that those corrupt people had to be stopped as soon as possible.  
  
WHUMP!  
  
Odie was suddenly on the floor. He looked up and saw Garfield laughing at him. "Dumb dog," he said, talking the way animals do-loud thoughts.  
  
"I am NOT a dumb dog," said Odie angrily.  
  
"AAARRRGGHH!!" cried Garfield in shock, and fell off the table. He landed right next to Odie. "Odie, did you just talk?"  
  
"Yes, I did," said Odie.  
  
"I must be dreaming," said Garfield in disbelief.  
  
"Frankly, I think that I'm dreaming," said Odie, smiling.  
  
"But… but… how did you learn how to talk?"  
  
Odie sighed. "I was going for a walk and I happened to walk right by this laboratory. Two vile men grabbed me and put me in some sort of chair… it kinda looked like an electric chair. Then they shinned this light on me… I guess that's what made me smarter." Odie's eyes widened and looked at Garfield, a little frightened. "That place was awful, Garfield. I could smell and hear helpless animals having horrible things done to them."  
  
"Animal testing?" cried Garfield. "Odie, this is serious. We have to stop them and free all of those animals!"  
  
"How will we be able to free all of them?" asked Odie. "I smelled at least 200!"  
  
"Well, remember that time, a long time ago, when I freed you from the pound?"  
  
"Yeah…"  
  
"Well, I got all of the other animals outta there too. Besides, we should try. We can't just sit here and do nothing!"  
  
"Well then, do you have a plan?"  
  
"Yeah. Odie, go to that laboratory and spy on them. Bring back any new information you can find."  
  
Odie whimpered. "But I don't wanna go back there! They might catch me again! Frankly, I'm surprised I escaped."  
  
Garfield sighed. "But you have too. While you're doing that, I'll look up some information about laboratories in this town on the Internet."  
  
"Can't you go to the laboratory, while I search the Internet?"  
  
"You don't know how to use the Internet. Hell, I don't even know where that laboratory is, or what it's named. You find that out. You don't have to go in it or anything."  
  
"Well… okay," said Odie glumly.  
  
  
Odie couldn't help thinking that he had found out all that he needed to the first time. But when he got there, he noticed a few things that he was surprised that he hadn't noticed the first time.  
  
First of all, the laboratory building didn't even look like a laboratory. It looked like an old, abandoned McDonald's building.  
  
"So they must not want anyone to know about this!" said Odie in sudden realization. "This dump probably doesn't have the city's approval or anything!"  
  
Then Odie noticed the two men who had captured him. They were walking into the McDonald's building looking like construction workers.  
  
"And they're dressed that way as to not arouse anyone's suspicion! The people who live here probably think that they're just working on restoring this building!"  
  
Odie felt as though he had learned enough. He ran back home tell Garfield.  
  
  
Garfield, meanwhile, had gotten onto Muncie, Indiana's homepage and was looking for any information on laboratories. "Aha!" he cried. "I found something here. 'All laboratories in Muncie must have city approval before starting up. You cannot meet city approval if there is animal testing; there is no animal testing allowed in Muncie.' Ha, so those guys ARE lawbreakers after all!" Garfield printed out the page and logged out of the Internet. Just then Odie came in.  
  
"What did you find, Odie?" asked Garfield.  
  
"For one thing," said Odie, "the laboratory is located in a run down, abandoned McDonald's. And secondly, the two men that captured me were dressed like construction workers, as not to arouse suspicion."  
  
"Are you sure that was it?" asked Garfield quizzically.  
  
"Positive. I could smell it."  
  
Garfield knew better than to argue with a dog's nose, so instead he reported his findings. "Well, it's obvious why they're trying to cover it up. Listen to this: 'All laboratories in Muncie must have city approval before starting up. You cannot meet city approval if there is animal testing; there is no animal testing allowed in Muncie.' That explains the cover-up."  
  
"Well," said Odie, "we know now that what they're doing is illegal. Do you have a plan?"  
  
"No," said Garfield. "I'll think of something."  
  
But suddenly Odie's face was lighting up. "What is it, Odie?" asked Garfield. "What are you thinking about? Whoa, I never thought that I'd ask Odie what he was thinking."  
  
"I think I have a plan," said Odie. "Garfield, I want you to go to the police and do something that'll make them follow you."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
"I don't know! Steal their keys or something! Anyway, lead them to the lab. I should have things under control by then."  
  
"What are you going to do?"  
  
Odie leaned over and whispered something in Garfield's ear. "Whoa," said Garfield. "That'll work, but don't you think that's a little harsh?"  
  
"Yeah, well, they deserve it," said Odie. "Do you know where the 'abandoned McDonald's' is?" As Odie said "abandoned McDonald's" he did the little quote thing with his fingers.  
  
"Oh, sure," said Garfield. "I just never knew that it was some secret laboratory."  
  
Then the feline/canine duo gave a high five with their paws for good luck and set off.  
  
  
Garfield knew that he couldn't act like he was up to something. He had to play a part exactly the opposite of him: a playful cat. First he had to find a way into the police station. While looking, he found an open window that was large enough to fit a fat cat like him. He crawled in. Then he smelled something that immediately caught his nose and eyes.  
  
The policemen had donuts in there! "Calm down, Garfield," Garfield muttered to himself. "You're not here to steal donuts. You're here to steal something so that the policemen will chase you." Garfield stopped suddenly. "Like donuts."  
  
There were three policemen in there. Correction: two policemen and a policewoman. All three of them were eating donuts and having a friendly chat. Garfield strolled over to them and purred.  
  
"How did a cat get in here?" asked one of the policemen.  
  
"My word!" cried the policewoman. "That's the biggest cat I've ever seen!"  
  
Garfield had to control the urge to sock the woman, since he knew that he had more important things to do. He jumped up onto the table and grabbed the box of donuts, then leaped out of the window.  
  
"Hey!" cried the second policeman. "That cat just stole our donuts!"  
  
"Isn't he fat enough?" cried 1.  
  
"Let's get him!" cried the woman.  
  
  
The two sinister, evil men were sitting in their unlawful laboratory. One of them said to the other, "I can't believe we let that dog escape!"  
  
"At least we got that cat that tried to."  
  
"But since we made that dog smarter, he recognized his chance to leave."  
  
"But I came back." The two men turned around and saw Odie leaning against the doorway.  
  
One of the men laughed. "Well, he's obviously not THAT smart. He came back."  
  
"Do you think I would come back unprepared for you two villains?" mocked Odie. "Of course not. I'd like you to meet my secret weapon."  
  
Binky the Clown jumped out of the doorway. "HEYYYYYYYYYYYYY CRIMINALS!"  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!" The two criminals, in their efforts to get out and avoid Binky, ran straight into each other and fell over.  
  
Just then Garfield, panting, ran into the lab. "Boy, these cops can run fast!" he gasped.  
  
"Donuts, Garfield?" said Odie. "I should've known." Just then the cops ran into the room.  
  
"There he is! There's that cat!" cried the policewoman.  
  
"Wait!" cried 2. "Listen."  
  
The officers, Garfield, and Odie were silent. They could here the sad whimpers, whines, and meows coming from a nearby room. All five of them ran to where the sound was coming from.  
  
"Oh my God!" cried 1.   
  
There were maybe 300 animals there, and they were all so undernourished that you could clearly see their ribs. Some of them had ghastly experiments done on them, so revolting that I shouldn't and couldn't possibly explain them.   
  
Policeman 2 ran into the other room. You could hear the clicks of handcuffs and 2 saying, "Both of you are under arrest."  
  
"So that's why you stole our donuts!" said the policewoman to Garfield. "I apologize."  
  
"That's alright," said Garfield. "But now, me and my buddy here had better go."  
  
Garfield and Odie left the lab without another word.  
  
  
"Hey boys!" said Jon Arbuckle, reading the paper. "Listen to this. There was a laboratory right in our own town that was using animals for testing! The police were lead there by a cat and a dog had brought Binky the Clown over. I wonder what dog and cat they were?"  
  
"I don't know, Jon," said Garfield.  
  
"Me either," said Odie, at which Jon fainted.  
  
Garfield gave Odie a look. "Well, it was about time he knew," said Odie with a shrug.  
  
"Yeah," said Garfield. "You may be smart, but you'll never be as smart as me."  
  
"I think not!" laughed Odie, and proceeded to chase Garfield around the house.  
  
The chase ended abruptly when both pets fell off the kitchen table.  
  
  



End file.
